First I must say that I am a CW op most of the time.

Seeing that ham radio seems to have less people in its ranks everyday, it could be wise to have less obstacles in the path to get a license.

On the other side, some say that this strategy could go against the level of operating skills and qualities of those who reach the ham bands. That is the argument No. 1 of many who support CW as a filter for our hobby. I don´t agree completely with this. There are other ways to ensure a minimum of quality and skills among the newcomers. There are many who have passed the "filter" and have poor operating skills and manners, way before this controversy was born.

In this moment, knowing the commercial interests that want to take our frequency allocations, it could be better to have more people with us, even if this means the sacrifice of quality. As I said above, I don't think that CW or not CW is directly and totally related to ops "quality".

Is my opinion that the comparison or analogy between learning CW and learning a foreign language is totally out of focus. Learning a different stile of writing could be a better approach. CW is not a new language, you use it with your language.

73 and happy new year for all.

David

hk1kxa/ea5